


I Think I Need a Doctor

by Kira_Dattei



Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [30]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Immortal Found Family, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, M/M, Post-Canon, Protective Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Self-Doubt, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:07:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27768001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Dattei/pseuds/Kira_Dattei
Summary: Hospitals suck. Joe is completely content with that simple appraisal.Prompt: Emergency Room
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994617
Comments: 6
Kudos: 109





	I Think I Need a Doctor

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a whump writer so I can't promise a huge amount of whump in all of these. I just picked the prompt from each day that actually sparked an idea and ran with it.  
> I'm mostly using these as a way to get a feel for the characters and I simply love the relationships given in canon and wanted to explore them.  
> Joe is the lucky whumpee for most of these because I just love him.
> 
> These are all going to be one-shots and they are as connected as you want them to be so you’re good to just read one and not worry about missing anything.
> 
> I'm pretty sure this was the first fic I wrote after deciding to do the whumptober prompts.

There wasn’t much that was new to someone who was just about to hit a thousand years old, but Joe was pretty sure that actually dealing with the hassle of an emergency room was a new experience. They’d dealt with hospitals, of course, because sometimes they learned enough about someone they helped that they checked up on them before moving on, morgues plenty of times, but not actually dealing with the “being cared for” or “loved one being treated” side of things.

Joe hated it and he’d argue that it wasn’t just him overstating something for the entertainment of the reactions of others.

He now understood why so many people didn’t like hospitals or were outright afraid of them. He’d accepted it was a common mindset for people but hadn’t truly understood why a place of treatment and healing in the modern world could be so negative.

Until now.

Sitting at Andy’s bedside while she rested from the surgery to fix the damage done by a stray bullet none of them had been close enough to step in front of was enough to make him want to find someone else to shoot even though they’d already killed everyone even distantly responsible for harming their leader and sister.

Nile had left a few minutes ago with Nicky to speak to the doctor while Joe had declared he’d stay behind and watch over Andy. He somewhat regretted that choice but knew he’d gotten to the point of needing a few minutes alone. His patience was dangerously thin and he didn’t want it to snap and to say anything he would regret to the others. It wasn’t fair to them when they would be just as affected by Andy being injured enough that they’d needed to risk going to the hospital.

As soon as Andy had been moved to a private room and they had all been allowed in to stay with her, Joe had taken up a distant but defensive position at the window. He could see clearly into the hall and there was nothing blocking him off in case there was a threat. He hadn’t moved from there since and he was pretty sure they were breaking four hours.

Just because Nicky was the sniper didn’t mean Joe hadn’t picked up anything from taking on the role of being his spotter. While he didn’t make a habit of being so still, it wasn’t even far beyond his capability. They all learned to do what was necessary for any mission, especially the things that didn’t come naturally to them. Complete stillness was one of those things for Joe. He was an active person, always had been. So he learned otherwise and taught himself how to be still, like he was now.

Though the looks Nicky had given him regularly told him his love was completely aware of why he’d taken such a position and remained as he had. Not that it was surprising as there was little they couldn’t perceive of one another’s needs and wants.

A pair of nurses walked by and Joe crossed his arms to keep from reaching for his gun. Honestly, if it had still been in his easy-to-reach thigh holster instead of tucked into his pants he might not have caught himself.

It was his fault.

Andy had gotten hurt because of him, because he hadn’t been fast enough to see the gun being pulled and place himself in the line of fire like he was supposed to.

Aside from Andy, he was the fastest. Nile would likely become so once she’d trained enough but his first training as a fighter had been with a weapon that required agility over strength and he had become skilled in that first life of his. His skill in this manner of fighting had only increased over hundreds of years of battle. His height allowed for weapons and techniques requiring brute strength but it was not his preference.

He should have been able to see and intercept that bullet.

Andy shouldn’t be here. Her remaining time shouldn’t lose days to recovering from injury when they were there to prevent it.

Joe let his head thud back against the window, the temptation to repeat the action again harder rising. It had been a long time since he’d felt the desire to cause himself harm but he felt he was deserving right now. Unlike Andy, it wouldn’t hurt him for long.

He looked away from the door to where Andy slept in the bed, the screen to her side displaying proof that she still lived. And the doctor had been confident in her recovery. With rest and not joining them on any jobs for as long as they were able to convince her not to, she would recover with nothing more than a scar.

Joe anticipated there would be bets as to how long Andy would go along with “rest”. He also anticipated that Andy would find out what the person she felt like letting win had bet and would ensure they were the victor.

While Booker had been the one to make the betting between them more common, it had been something mostly done between Nicky and Booker. Andy liked to manipulate the outcomes and Joe simply liked to guess at whose side to take but rarely participated. And with Nile becoming more comfortable with them, she was proving herself to be quite good at anticipating outcomes and had won a fair amount of money from Nicky already.

Also, Andy got plenty of satisfaction from letting Nile win.

Joe scoffed at himself, knowing exactly what he was doing, allowing his thoughts to wander to anything that wasn’t what happened earlier that day. He couldn’t allow himself to go too far into thought over the mission until they were out of public, not with how it would inhibit his concentration if they were suddenly attacked. He didn’t care if the likelihood of there being any sort of attack, especially while they were in the hospital, was miniscule. He’d learned so early in his existence that relaxing one’s guard completely was a mistake that would be punished.

He uncrossed his arms and pushed himself away from the window and walked over to the chair next to Andy that Nile had been sitting in. He hesitated, the thought crossing his mind that he shouldn’t be this close now when he couldn’t be close enough to Andy to keep her out of this bed.

He almost turned around to walk back to the door but instead forced himself to sit down, though he remained stiff in the chair, his back straight and his hands clasped on the armrests.

Joe wasn’t one for self-flagellation and he wasn’t pleased with how easy it was seeming for him to fall to it today.

“I feel old today,” he said in Arabic, simply saying what came most naturally to him as he didn’t have to be concerned about who was around or had to understand him. “I don’t feel that very often,” he admitted almost as an afterthought.

Perhaps he was hoping that Andy would hear his complaining on this subject and wake up for the simple need to admonish him for saying such a thing to _her_ of all people.

“We all have our days, right?” he continued, now unable to stop since he’d started. He been silent, stuck in his mind for too long. “Though for us it often turns into much longer than ‘days’. I’m expecting this to last for a while for me. Much longer after you no longer need to change bandages, I will still feel like this, like I am not enough. I’m sure it will be irritating for you. And you know how Nicky hates when I beat myself up like this. He becomes so uncertain that he knows how to say and do the right thing with me. Perhaps even Nile is familiar enough with me by now that she will be irritated as well.”

Another nurse walked by the door and caught Joe’s attention as he had to ensure there was still no threat. He wasn’t in as good of a position here and he had to be ready as long as he was the only one there.

Joe recognized he was being unreasonably cautious and he didn’t care.

He combed his fingers through his hair as he allowed his back to relax slightly against the chair. “Words are failing me, Andromache. Everything I want to say isn’t fair to you.”

You should stop going on missions.

You should only let the ones who can’t stay dead be in a position to die.

You need to live like you really will die tomorrow.

You shouldn’t trust me like you do.

All unfair to Andy, who he couldn’t hold a candle to in experience. She had every right to continue to choose how she lived regardless of how she had changed.

And he had made a mistake. It wasn’t his first. It wouldn’t be his last. He may be immortal but he was only human. And his mistakes had never been enough to break any of their trust in him, just as this wouldn’t.

His trust in himself, though…

That would not come out of this intact. He might spend the next decade working to prove to himself that he was still worthy of being relied on and every innocent’s death would set him back.

Again, not the first mistake and not the last. It didn’t matter that no mistake he’d made had landed one of them in the hospital because he’d failed to protect them, he had been the reason people had died who didn’t deserve to and the time it took for him to not be bothered by that was long.

He knew it was one of the parts of how he was that truly frustrated Nicky. Nicky didn’t tolerate anyone causing Joe harm, even if the one causing the harm was Joe himself. The difference was Nicky couldn’t strike out at the one causing the harm when that was the case.

“If today is any indication, I am definitely going to be irritating Nicky for a while,” he said. “Well, we’ve been due for this particular argument for a while now. Maybe he’ll find the right words that allow me to come out of it quicker this time around. I don’t want to feel old until I really am, so I need to at least reach your age.”

He was still letting his thoughts wander apparently.

“I don’t want you to be in a hospital again. This is a place of death and you deserve to not be in such a place in your remaining time. I wish to do everything I am capable of to keep you from needing to spend another day in a hospital. I vow to do this. I will do all I am able to be worthy of your trust. I will die as often for you, my sister, as I would for my love even if you hate it as much as he does.”

He moved forward, reaching out to wrap both his hands around Andy’s hand laying lax at her side. He made sure to be gentle, holding her without placing any pressure to his grip and then he leaned down to place his forehead against his hand.

He ignored the tears that fell onto the blanket.

“I will be worthy of all you give me, Andromache. One day.”

He remained curled over like that, his mind racing too much for him to fall asleep though he did stop paying attention to the sounds of footsteps passing by the room. As it got later, there were less people anyway and he was able to keep his attention focused on the sound of Andy’s even breathing.

His focus pinpointed when he heard footsteps enter the room, the altering of the echo immediately telling him that the people hadn’t walked by. He was about to lift his head up when Nile’s voice broke the silence though she kept a low volume, “You awake, Joe? We brought food.”

Even though it wasn’t enough to actually make him smile, he did feel some amusement that if he had been asleep, the volume Nile had kept her voice would likely not have been loud enough to wake him and he appreciated her for that. Because while he woke up best to touch, certain volumes to voices did at least start the process of waking him up.

But he sat up, letting go of Andy’s hand so she remained undisturbed.

Nicky was walking around the end of the bed and automatically reached out to brush his fingers along the nape of Joe’s neck once he was within reach. He was speaking and Joe had to concentrate to listen, not yet truly pulled from his head. “We had to walk a few blocks to find a decent enough restaurant. I tried one of the sandwiches in the cafeteria here and it was beyond reprehensible.”

“He actually spit it out and then started going off in Italian. Got a few looks from some of the staff that I wish I’d gotten a picture of.” Nile had set a bag onto the counter along the wall next to the door and was pulling out containers.

Joe wasn’t hungry but he would eat. They all got used to eating whether or not they were hungry.

“I am willing to eat horrible food but only when there are no other options,” Nicky concluded.

Joe didn’t really feel better and he didn’t feel like he was going to recover from this quickly. But he would have his family either way and they would help.

If nothing else, they would ensure he ate.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading and feel free to drop a kudo or a comment if you feel so inclined. The reception these fics have been getting has been absolutely amazing and I love every single show of enjoyment from readers. Thank you again!!!!


End file.
